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| Debris from crashed Sky Lab, Esperance, WA |
Esperance is a very pretty harbour with a long jetty and a very large shipping wharf.
We checked the town facilities and arranged to meet Cyril, Crawf's cousin, who we supplied with family history information. He and his daughter, Suzanne, were very surprised to get this info.
On Sunday we had fish & chips on the waterfront and then spent the entire afternoon browsing through the local museum. The museum has some very interesting displays, including a display about the Sky Lab that crashed over the area in 1979, debris littered the area and the shire council fined the USA government $400 dollars for littering. This fine was finally paid in about 2009.
Monday began very damp but improved so we were able to go on an island cruise. We cruised passed several islands and saw sea lions and seals on many of the rocks. We also saw a pair of sea eagles who eagerly await the boat for a feed of fish. They are very large, graceful birds with incredible eyesight.
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| Whistling Rock, Cape Le Grande NP Esperance, WA |
We then landed on Woody Island which is set up as an enviro camping area, with small huts and camp kitchens etc. Heidi, Suzanne's daughter, was our guide and she took us on a long walk around the island, showing us the plants and animals.
The weather held until we were nearly back to Esperance when the rain set in again.
The next few days were wet and cold so we didn't go out very often. When the sky cleared we went on several great drives around the area. Great Ocean drive, west of Esperance, and Cape Le Grande National Park, to the east, have great views of the coastline, cliffs, rocks and beaches.
We had the ute serviced while in Esperance, were unable to get the generator repaired so will have to wait until we get to Perth for this. We spent the next few days catching up with Cyril, Suzanne and some of her family, cleaning the van and ute and waiting for some wheel studs for the ute to arrive from Gympie.
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| Seals, Esperance, WA |
We have decided to head inland again, towards Wave Rock and the wheat belt to avoid the windy weather along the southern coast and will visit that area in the springtime.
Saturday, 18-6-11
Left Esperance and travelled to towards Ravensthorpe. We have been intrigued by the names in WA. Most of the towns in the south of the state end with up, eg. Munglinup, Dalyup, Jerdacuttup and Jerramungup just to mention a few and the names in the north of the state end in down although most of these are property or station names.
We spent the night at an old mining town site, Kundip, in a rest area on our own, it was very quiet.
Sunday, 19-6-11
Went for a drive to the coastal town of Hopetoun, with the hope of seeing whales but our hopes were dashed because of the really rough sea. Hopetoun is possibly a great place in spring and summer but most places were closed for the winter but we managed to find a nice lunch. We then returned to Ravensthorpe, refuelled and headed north to Lake King which is a large farming area and only 30kms from the "Rabbit Proof Fence". This fence is the longest fence in the world, 3,236.8 kms.
